So this week I've been trying out a new exercise to make my process faster, experiment a bit with my style, and help getting myself in the zone.
The exercise consists of finishing a piece under 40 minutes tops, and breaking the process down in 4 parts of 10 minutes each: drafting, clearing sketch, base colors and shading/final touches.
The time limits force me take more shortcuts and spare no time for overthinking, re-doing or overdetailing, which I tend to do a lot - and also helps me focus on the piece alone, no zoning out.
These are the results! Iris was the first one - my first try turned out slightly wonky on the face, and I was pretty lost on how to color it in only 10 minutes. Priscilla turned out much better since after my first run I had a better idea of how to use the short time limit more efficiently, and used a reference for the lighting. Hyatt was the latest one and I tried different brushes for the shading (also referenced), as well as tried going back to my old sketching brush instead of the recent pencil-like one.
I'll keep doing those a few times per week, eventually expand to waist shots or more - hoping to see improvement on my process!